WW1 British busts I'm working on.

[Cheesey153]

John, I drilled wee holes in the cap and placed tiny balls of putty on top. Then I pressed the putty into place and flattened with a brush, then pushed a pin into the middle. Once the putty was hard, I trimmed with a knife blade.

 

[John Long]

Excellent tip Cheesey. Thanks

 

[Joe Hudson]

Jon,

Truly Great work! I would love to see these produced and paint one myself!

Joe

 

[Manfred]

Excellent work Cheesey !

Especially that the cap is "functional" ie removable is worth noting
Also like the way the face was altered to a young man.

Great inspiration !

 

[Kreston]

Jon, ummm....about your placement of the grommets. Not only do you have them reversed , I think you've put them in backwards!


How's that for some correct information?

 

[Lou Masses]

All this time I thought you were some talentless git who wrote articles for Military Modelling.....

Excellent work. Now make me one! I bought two of the things and I can't decide what to do with them. Actually one just got thrown out. I started doing something and determined I can't sculpt for sure!

Great stuff Cheesey!

 

[John Long]

Don't throw it out Lou! You're probably expecting to sculpt as well as you paint. There's a great article in HM about improving your work. The author shows some of his early painting work. I think it could be applied to sculpting as well. It's obvious he improved with practice. I think it was written by ....... YOU.

 

[Lou Masses]

Funny...point taken. Thanks

 

[Cheesey153]

Joe: The bust will be produced by Michael Roberts Ltd - it will consist of the torso, the Old Bill head and the 2 choices of headwear, cap or helmet. Kreston gets the flippy floppy hat all to himself!

Manfred: I liked the idea of the painter being able to adjust the hats however he chooses - have them straight or tilted. Also, should he want to make a completely different kind of headwear, he won't have to carve away a moulded-on hat first!

Kreston: I'll fix those grommets right now!

Lou: I am a talentless git who used to write articles! :lol: You should persevere with the putty. If things really do not work out for you, I'm sure you & I could collaborate on something.

 

[Manfred]

I liked the idea of the painter being able to adjust the hats however he chooses - have them straight or tilted. Also, should he want to make a completely different kind of headwear, he won't have to carve away a moulded-on hat first!

Logical, now that you mention it

 

[Bpete]

Great work Jon.
How did you make the helmet?
The mannequin bust is a great idea, I've got mine on order.
Darn you Kreston. You give the man a cheese hat and own him for life .

 

[Joe Hudson]

Jon,

Thanks. I look forward to seeing them produced and seeing what Kreston does with his version.

Joe

 

[Cheesey153]

Bruce, the helmet has been carved from a lump of putty. The bowl was done first and then I added a circular lump to the bottom edge and carved that down to form the brim.

 

[Bpete]

Do you do the contours of hard round or curved shapes by eye or do you use some sort of tool or device to get everything to come out even, round, and/or symetrical?

 

[Cheesey153]

I've done it all by eye. I considered making a template to check curvatures against but I figured that the hassle of making accurate drawings, and then scaling them, was too much for me! I'll concede that the helmet may not be 100% accurate but it looks right to me - and more importantly, it looks right to Kreston.
I was a little unsure about the helmet's size but looking at period photographs, it seems that some soldiers had helmets that fell way down over their eyes and others had them that perched high on their head. I don't know if this is because of the different sizes of human heads or if the helmets were made in different sizes.
Kreston???

 

[Bpete]

Good eye then, because it looks spot on to me.